Majority of Sacramentans want
troops
withdrawn from Iraq

Two-thirds of Sacramento residents want American troops withdrawn from Iraq, and most are pessimistic about Iraq and President Bush’s war policies, according to the 2007 Sacramento State Annual Survey of the Region.

Fully 69 percent of Sacramento region residents are opposed to the war in Iraq. Compared to other Americans, area residents are less likely to support the war. A recent survey showed 37 percent of Americans think it was worth going to war, compared to 26 percent in the Sacramento region.

About two-thirds (65 percent) of Sacramento region residents want a timetable established to withdraw troops from Iraq, and 28 percent want to keep the troops there.

The survey, conducted by Sacramento State Professor Amy Liu and her students through the University’s Institute for Social Research, found that the largest division in opinions on the war in the region was found among registered voters. More than half of Republican voters—55 percent—believe it is worth going to war, while 88 percent of Democrats and 76 percent of other voters hold the opposing view.

And as the war continues, area residents have become increasingly pessimistic about the United States’ future in Iraq. Only 20 percent of Sacramento region residents remain optimistic. Additionally, the disapproval rate for President Bush’s handling of the situation in Iraq has reached 73 percent, an all-time high in the survey’s history, and more than two-thirds (69 percent) oppose the President’s plan to send 22,000 additional forces to Iraq.

Other findings include:

Over the years, Sacramento residents increasingly think the U.S. situation in Iraq is getting worse. Only 14 percent thought it was getting worse in 2004; 17 percent in 2005; 26 percent in 2006; and 36 percent in 2007.

Residents in Yolo (47 percent) and Sacramento (37 percent) counties are more likely to feel pessimistic about the future in Iraq than residents from El Dorado (29 percent) and Placer (30 percent) counties.

People whose households earn less than $50,000 annually (76 percent) and females (75 percent) tend to have a higher disapproval rating of Bush’s war policies than those who earn more than $50,000 a year (72 percent) and males (69 percent).

An overwhelming majority of Democrats (83 percent) and other voters (67 percent) support setting a timetable to withdraw troops from Iraq, while more than half of Republicans (53 percent) want to keep the troops there until America achieves its goals, regardless of how long that takes.

The survey was a computer-assisted telephone interview of 1,106 randomly selected adults from Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties. It has a margin of error of 3 percent.